


Proof That Morgan Stark’s Parents Are Still in Love

by akasharpiegirl



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday, Birthday Presents, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Roller Coaster, F/M, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Late Night Conversations, Marriage, Morgan Stark Needs a Hug (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Nightmares, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts is the best mom, Pepperony - Freeform, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Tony Stark, Scared Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, be thankful that i even implied it, morgan thinks her parents are getting divorced, she has nightmares, the second edition of morgan stark’s friends don’t have emotional intelligence, there’s actually no sex im asexual stop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26116930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akasharpiegirl/pseuds/akasharpiegirl
Summary: In which Morgan Stark starts to think that her parents aren’t in love anymore and separating, so her parents try to ease her anxiety about it.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 21
Kudos: 75





	Proof That Morgan Stark’s Parents Are Still in Love

**Author's Note:**

> I’m in a group chat with elphierix that is completely dedicated to pepperony on tumblr and they often send these ‘soft pepperony things’ in the chat and one day one of those sparked a prompt idea... and a therapeutic writing experience. So, here we are with my most recent passion project. And to any of you out there dealing with possible divorce or just general familial conflict, I get you. I hope things get better. 
> 
> rated teen for implied sexual content.  
> tw // divorce, mentions of food

“What if we based the diorama off the scene where she rescues the book from the bonfire?”, Morgan asks as she grabs her empty water bottle from the island, looking at her three friends: Rebecca, Kara, and Isabelle, splayed out in her living room scribbling things down for their project. 

“I can get clay from my Mom tomorrow before I get to school,” Rebecca, the first of her friend group, answers as she writes on a sheet of notebook paper. “I know how to sculpt with modeling clay so here’s hoping the poor girl doesn’t look like an ugly blob. You know, like the clay pots we were forced to make in fifth grade.”

“Don’t even remind me, my stepdad tried so hard to seem impressed,” Kara states. 

The girls let out a small round of cringe-induced snickers, as Morgan poured water in the bottle and screwed the lid back on, her charm bracelet clinking against the metal bottle. “I forgot Mama A taught art at the city college.” She took a sip from the straw when she saw her Mom enter the house at the corner of her eye. “Speaking of Moms—“ she turned to her Mom. “How are you?”

“I’m, uh, okay… yeah, I’m alright,” Pepper gives a tired smile, before hugging Morgan and kissing her forehead. “How are you, hm? Had an exam in chemistry if I recall correctly. How’d that go?”

Morgan stepped away, “I think it went okay, we’ll see—“

“Hi, Mrs. Stark!”, Isabelle exclaims, looking up from where she sat hunched over in the rocking chair as she wrote her part of the book report down. 

“Good evening, Isabelle,” Pepper let out a small laugh. “I talked to your Mom today, she said you were grounded for two weeks. How come you’re at my house?”

“School related function,” Isabelle quickly claims, eyes widening. “She knows I’m here.”

“I’m just teasing, kid,” Pepper turns back to her daughter. “Where’s your Dad, Mo? I need to speak with him.”

“Dad! Mom’s home!”, Morgan exclaims as she steps out of her Mom’s way.

“Everyday,” Pepper scoffs, pointing at her daughter as she looks at Morgan’s friends. “This announcement happens every single day.”

“They know,” Morgan states.

“Oh, is she now?”, Tony exits the home office then, walking over to his wife. He extends his arms outward to her and she embraces him. They kiss and Tony lets out a content smile as it comes to an end. “How’d that godforsaken meeting go?”

“Was ten minutes behind schedule… could’ve been an email,” Pepper shrugs. “Left the office thirty minutes later than planned… be glad you got to skip out. Oh, and I forgot to put in the grocery order last night, so I had to go in. I’m just glad to be home.”

“I’m sorry, honey. Grocery runs and meetings suck,” Tony half cringes. But he regains his loving expression quickly.

“You seem quite happy. Tell me why?”

“It’s been sixteen years and one day since we got married,” Tony says. “I got so lucky.”

“So did I,” Pepper states, looking over at Morgan. “Speaking of being lucky, our little girl over there turns seventeen soon.”

Morgan’s eyes widen as she makes her way back over to the living room, stopping in her tracks at the mention of her birthday. She pulls on one of the charms attached to her bracelet with her free hand, it was a nervous habit she had. 

“Ah, geez, don’t remind me how she’s growing up,” Tony jokes. “She can’t be, I don’t want to be old.”

“What does that make me?”, Pepper inquires.

“You’re still young, Mrs. Stark,” Tony says before kissing her again.

“I’ll have FRI send you my wishlist,” Morgan muses as she sits down on the ground, trying not to cringe at her parents’ display of affection for each other. 

“Why do I feel like my wallet is going to start crying the second I read what you want?”, Tony asks. “Which is odd, considering…”

Morgan shrugs.

Pepper and Tony look back toward each other and converse, before Tony exits the home for a moment and Pepper walks upstairs only after announcing that dinner is in an hour. 

“Your parents are adorable, you know,” Rebecca says, looking up from her phone.

“Are they?”, Morgan asks with obvious disgust at the statement. “You really think that?”

“They are!”, Isabelle states. “They’re still in love after sixteen years of marriage, why wouldn’t they be cute?”

“It’s kinda sweet to see,” Kara shrugs. “My parents got divorced when I was eight, it’s nice to see stable, happy couples.”

“Whatever you say,” Morgan mumbles, finding where she left off on her part of the report. “You don’t live with them.”

**Two weeks later:**

“Can I hang out with Kara at her Dad’s house?”, Morgan asks after running downstairs, spotting her parents laying together on the couch. It was around one PM, the week of Christmas.

Both Tony’s and Pepper’s views darted to the teenager. 

“When?”, Pepper inquires. 

“Now…”, Morgan answers, gently passing her phone between both of her hands as she awaited approval. “I’m driving, you guys don’t have to take me.”

“Where’s her Dad’s house again?”, Tony questions as he holds onto Pepper’s left hand in his right.

“It’s right by that dirt road that’s like ten or so minutes from where I went to elementary school,” Morgan recalls. “Can’t remember the address right now, though. Why?”

“I’m just wondering, why there though?”, Tony asks, with a raised brow. “I mean, it’s fine. But, our house is open.”

“I, um… she invited me over?”, Morgan states, despite it coming out like a question. “Kara needs help, uh, wrapping gifts for the first holiday celebration of the season with her Mom’s and stepdad’s family. It’s in two days and she doesn’t know how to wrap presents without it looking as if a stray dog sat on the wrapping paper tube.”

The couple shot each other a look of concern before Tony let out a long winded sigh, “Yeah. Have fun, kiddo. Be back by six for dinner, please.”

“Thank you!”, Morgan exclaims as she flees from the lakehouse.

“Call us if you need anything,” Pepper calls after the teenager just before the front door closes behind Morgan. 

After hearing Morgan’s car leave the premises, Tony freaks, “You know what that was, right?”

“Uh, our teenage daughter has a social life? How tragic,” Pepper deadpans.

“This is the fourth time she’s asked to hang out at her friend’s houses,” Tony states. “I understand the first time, Rebecca had the clay at her house and they needed to finish their project. But these three other times? Makes no sense.”

“And? It’s rude to invite your friends over to your house if you’ve been invited over to theirs.”

“I know that. But I think she’s embarrassed by us, Pep,” Tony says, almost defeated. 

“I thought you lived to embarrass Morgan,” Pepper muses.

“I mean, I do,” Tony shrugs. “But she knows I’m teasing. This, I feel bad if she feels uncomfortable inviting her friends over because we’re being too romantic or whatever.”

“And what do you suppose we do to fix that?”, Pepper asks.

“Cool it around her, maybe? I don’t know,” Tony wonders. “You know, like we did for the first few months in our dating days so the media wouldn’t figure us out.”

Pepper nods with a knowing smirk before turning her head to look at him, “You know what came out of that time in our lives, hiding from gossip columns?”

“What?”

She leaned closer to her husband, whispering into his ear. 

His eyes widened at the statement, just before their lips met each other’s and Pepper lightly bit Tony’s bottom lip as they kissed. Pepper’s arms wrap around Tony’s neck, pulling him closer to her. 

**December 31st, Morgan’s birthday:**

Ever since Morgan had the energy and willpower to stay up on New Years Eve, a tradition was born. They didn’t watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve like the rest of the United States population, but rather… from Morgan’s tenth birthday and onward, the family of three made homemade hot chocolate in the evening. Then the family of three sat outside on a blanket at their dock in the eleventh hour, drinking the hot cocoa, and right before going back inside Morgan always opened a small jewelry box that contained a new charm for her charm bracelet… right before the eastern time zone clock deemed it New Years Day. In case it was raining, simply too cold, or snowing, they’d snuggle up by the fireplace and do the exact same thing. 

Some of her favorites included a Hogwarts acceptance letter charm that was gifted to her on her eleventh birthday, a Disney charm that was gifted to her on her twelfth to signify her first trip to ‘the happiest place on Earth’ (her favorite ride was Space Mountain), and a pointe shoe charm gifted to her on her fourteenth birthday in honor of starting classes en pointe. 

Tonight was the same, except Kara and Rebecca were over to celebrate too. And normally, her parents would prefer to just keep it a family thing. But, when Morgan came to her parents asking if she could invite two of her friends over for a sleepover on her birthday, about a week after the couple started to tone down their ‘heart eyes’… they gladly allowed it. 

Morgan swirled the peppermint stick in her hot chocolate filled mug, dispersing the melting red and white candy with the swirling whipped cream as she did. She took a sip of the drink, as her father took a seat next to her with the box in the hand that wasn’t holding onto his mug. 

Kara and Rebecca sat on the left side of Morgan, the three teenagers conversing ever so often about their mutual interests, school, and various other topics that sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher speaking to Morgan’s parents.

Pepper took her place across from her husband after grabbing another pirouette cookie from the kitchen. She definitely shot loving glances at her husband, especially when he was talking to their daughter, but she was always careful not to if Morgan or her friends were paying any ounce of attention. And, Tony knew, too. ...he was guilty of stealing glances of his wife tonight. 

“So, there’s four minutes until you’re officially seventeen, you ready Maguna?”, Tony asks, setting the box down in front of the teenager. 

Morgan hums quietly, setting down the minty drink on an outdoor patio table before looking back at the small white box and picking it up. 

“Hold on, before you do,” Pepper stops Morgan right before the teenager pulls the top of the box open. “Got any guesses, kiddo?”

“Uh,” she lets out a small laugh, looking at her friends.

“You two can help,” Tony encourages the friends. “Three guesses total, though. I’m tired.”

“Um… do you already have a science related one?”, Rebecca asks. 

“Yeah,” Morgan answers, lifting her wrist up slightly. It was a charm representing the neurotransmitter known as serotonin. “It’s the third one from the left spacer.”

“Maybe something having to do with YAGP?”, Kara inquires. “You did place this year in the finals. You know, compared to me, who got points docked for my prop breaking mid variation.”

“Yeah, because placing tenth in the New York finals is _such_ a big deal,” Morgan scoffs. 

“Hey,” Tony scolds. “Tenth in the international finals is _huge_! Stop that.”

“It still doesn’t negate the fact that I was terrified because the first time I competed at a classical ballet competition and qualified for the final, I broke my ankle on stage,” Morgan mumbles. 

“Still, tenth overall is impressive for a comeback. Even if you were nervous,” Pepper sighs.

Morgan shakes it off quickly, “Uh… I don’t know? My birthstone? I tend to make the wrong guesses every year, so…” She pulled open the box to see a hot chocolate charm with an etched candy cane attached to it. 

“We actually we’re going to go the YAGP route, but couldn’t decide which was best,” Pepper explains. “Went with one to signify this tradition and want to let you pick out one relating to the ballet competition if you so choose. Happy birthday, baby girl.” 

“Happy birthday, Morgan,” Tony says, giving her a side hug. 

———

It was an hour after Morgan added onto her charm bracelet. She and her friends were in her room, talking about whatever came to mind... dance, school, full on motivational speeches, even love related gossip. Morgan didn’t care for the gossip, but she still did listen in. 

“I mean, technically, if just one percent of the human race... an estimate of 78 million people, could find you attractive at one point, why focus on the one stupid boy that doesn’t?”, Morgan looks up from her book as she laid down on her bed. “I’m sorry if I’m coming off all Spock like, but… you deserve better than that, Becca.”

“I didn’t even think you were listen—“

There was a small knock on the door, that caused each girl to look toward the entryway of Morgan’s room. Tony creaked open the door then, “Having any luck solving all of the world’s problems?”

Morgan was quick to say, “I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

“I’m sorry you guys aren’t having any luck there. But, I came in to say that Morgan’s Mom and I are headed to sleep. But if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to holler. Oh, and please try to get some sleep though, I don’t want to deal with angry parents when I drop you two off at your homes later. Capisce?”

Morgan’s friends both say, “Okay.”

Morgan stands up, walks over to her father, and wraps her arms around Tony’s waist, hugging him, “Thank you, Dad.”

“Oh,” he says, a little caught off guard. He runs his fingers through his daughter’s hair, cradling her head for a moment, as a small and content smile appears on his face. “Love you, kid.”

“Love you too,” Morgan smiles in her Dad’s arms, before letting go. “Goodnight.”

“Night,” he mumbles before stepping away and closing the door behind him as he leaves.

She turns around to see her friends staring at her. “W-What?”

“Speaking of relationships... attraction and all that, did you notice how your parents were acting today? They didn’t act like that when we were over a few weeks ago,” Rebecca asks.

“Huh?”, Morgan squints as she sits back down after sitting her novel on her bedside table, searching her memory for what on Earth her friends were on about.

“You didn’t notice?”, Kara’s eyes widened.

“No...”, she mumbles.

“Either something’s going on or they were just significantly less lovey toward each other today... unlike the fifteen thousand other times I’ve been to your house,” Rebecca shrugs, as Kara stands up and sits next to Morgan. 

“Define ‘lovey’,” Morgan states, worry starting to cloud.

“Kissing, flirting, hand holding, hugs...”, Rebecca trails off.

Morgan was quiet for a minute as she looked down at her hands. Her voice was shaky when she spoke up, “They’ve been, uh, like that for a week... Does that, uh... does that really mean something is going on?”

“I mean, it’s possible,” Kara sighs. “Just keep your guard up, okay? I don’t want to scare you, but this happened to my parents before they split up.”

Her eyes widened, “That’s... um. That’s hard to stomach.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s nothing to worry about, Mo,” Rebecca backtracks, seeing Morgan’s demeanor changing. “Your parents like to keep you in the loop. If something’s going on, they’d tell you.”

“Yeah...”, Morgan says halfheartedly before a yawn escapes from her lips. Her voice became stern as she laid on her side in the fetal position, forcefully pulling the blanket over her. “I know this is technically a party but I want to sleep, so if y’all want to keep talking, please just be quiet.”

  
  


**A month and a half later:**

  
  


A whole month and a half has passed since Morgan’s birthday party. Her parents’ usual heart eyes didn’t return. 

And, she was freaking out. ...because good God, something has to be seriously wrong with her parents if they’ve stopped talking about going on dates too. So, she made a plan. During her lunch period, Morgan ordered her parents’ favorite dishes at their mutual favorite restaurant as a to-go order, also giving a generous tip after secretly transferring money into her bank account ( ~~She only took out 300, Dads not going to notice~~ ) and picked it up as soon as school got out. She set it up at their dining table at home before her parents came home from their day full of meetings and fled the house for ballet practice and assistant teaching, just before both of her parents turned the corner on the winding road that connected to the place they called home. 

Tony unlocked the door, to see their dining table decked out for a nice dinner for two. He raised an eyebrow, awaiting his wife to see it for herself because he definitely didn’t do this.

Pepper came up beside him, “Did you take 300 out of our account?”

“I think I know where it went, but no it wasn’t me,” Tony points at the scene. “Probably Morgan if it wasn’t you.”

She sees it then, “This was Morgan’s doing?” You positive?” She closes the door behind her.

“It wasn’t me, even though I’d like to take credit for it,” Tony says as the couple walked over to the table. He spots a small folded notecard sat in the middle of the table. “There’s a note from the culprit.” He hands it to Pepper.

She reads the note aloud as she scans it over, “It’s my first night assistant teaching dance classes at the studio, so I can’t attend dinner tonight. Thought it would be nice to drop off food for you two before I left. Love, Morgan.”

“Do you think she knows?”, Tony asks.

“No, I believe she would’ve said something if she noticed,” Pepper shakes her head. “I like to think she just did this out if the goodness of her heart and my parenting style worked.” She sat down at her designated seat and poured herself a glass of water.

The two ate the food provided, chatted, and of course: a lot of flirting, making out, and amongst other things did happen later that night too. 

——

Morgan hiked up her dance bag and her backpack onto her shoulder as she walked up the steps of her porch at nine PM. She unlocked the door, stepping inside to find a human-free living room and an empty dining table. She felt defeated, but still set her dance bag down in her laundry room cubby and sat down at the island to start her homework. 

“How’s the homework coming?”, Tony’s voice sounds from behind her before taking a seat next to his daughter about ten minutes later. 

Morgan was still stuck on question two of her math homework... she couldn’t stop thinking. “You tell me,” Morgan mutters as the pencil falls out of her hand onto the sheet. 

He reads the question and it’s answers before taking the pencil and circling the second, “Don’t tell your teacher.” He quickly wrote out the work, too. 

She sighs, taking the pencil from Tony and attempting to process the third.

“You seem sad. Want to talk about it? It’s completely okay to talk about your feelings,” he asks.

“No.”

“Well, that’s okay too,” Tony says, briefly looking back at the dining table before returning his gaze to his daughter and the homework sheet. “You don’t have to worry about Mom and I. We’re alright.”

Morgan stops writing in her answer at the sound of her Dad’s statement, staring at him with wide eyes. “I don’t have to, _what_ _?_ ” 

His eyebrows furrow at Morgan’s shock, “You weren’t?”

“No?”, she lies through her teeth. “I mean, it’s nice to know, but... never came up in my mind. I’m just stressed because the six year olds I taught how to chassé were sad about the other student teacher leaving. They hate me.”

“Just give them some time. You didn’t like new people when you were six, too,” Tony reassures, dropping the awkward conversation from a second ago. “Did you eat anything on your way home?”

“I picked up drive-thru and ate a cheeseburger in my car before I came in, if that’s what you’re asking.”

**A few nights later:**

Tony inhaled a sharp breath as he rolled over to see his alarm clock glow lowly on his end table. He hadn’t been able to sleep a wink tonight, when Pepper had practically fallen asleep right after her head hit the pillow. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t sleep, but there was something he knew for sure: It was February sixteenth, at 4:43 AM. He pushed himself up from the bed, careful not to wake his wife, and walked down the second story hallway in hopes to find something to eat. 

He heard a muffled sniffle when he made it outside of Morgan’s room, which caused him to stop in his tracks. He had also seen that there was a dim light on in her room that was cascading from the crack between the door and the floor. And that’s when he heard a muffled, “I can’t lose them... I can’t,” come from her room. 

“Morgan, are you absolutely sure you don’t want me to alert your parents that you are in emotional distress?”, he could hear FRIDAY ask. 

“Y-Yeah.” Then more sniffles came. What on Earth would be bothering her so much that she didn’t want actual human beings—her parents—to comfort her? 

He waited a few seconds, the overbearing sound of what he could only assume were her tears stuck in his mind, before he gently knocked on his daughter’s door. 

There wasn’t any response, in fact, the sniffling briefly stopped as soon as he knocked. 

He tapped the door again, before carefully opening the door. 

Morgan was sitting on her bay window bench in the fetal position, with tears in her eyes as she looked out the window. Her face was blotchy and the dim light from her lamp illuminated her red, tired eyes. That same pair of eyes darted to the sound of the door creaking open, spotting her father standing in the doorway... her eyes widening in a mixture of shock, sadness, and anger. “F-FRIDAY, how... how could you?”

“Your father was already awake, I had no part in this,” FRIDAY defends herself before Tony could. 

“Morgan?”, Tony asks, his voice morphing into a quiet, comforting voice that Morgan vaguely remembered. Tony rarely saw her cry anymore, the last time he could recall calming his crying daughter was when she was eleven. It was when she had broken her ankle at the Youth American Grand Prix. “Are you alright? What’s going on?”

She didn’t answer him as he sat next to her. She let go of the fetal position, her legs hanging over the end of the bench. The only noise filling the room were the sounds of the father-daughter duo breathing, the crickets chirping outside, and small sniffles coming from the teen every once in a while. 

“Morgan, what’s going on?”, Tony asks, holding out his hand for her to hold. “Please talk to me, kid, you’re scaring me.”

Instead of holding his hand or saying anything outright, she just wrapped her arms around him and hugged onto him as more tears fell… briefly staining Tony’s t-shirt with salty tears.

He was confused, sure. But he embraced his daughter anyway, cradling her head in one of his hands. “I don’t know what’s wrong but whatever it is, it’ll be okay. Take your time, you don’t have to tell me,” Tony says in a gentle voice, rubbing her back in a comforting manner for a moment.

A quiet, muffled plea came from his daughter then, “Please… please don’t leave me, Dad.” Along came a shaky breath as she tried to calm down, only for another batch of tears to surface. “I still need you.”

“I would never leave you, kid,” Tony assures her, unsure why she felt the need to say that. “Promise.”

He blinks, and that’s when he saw the article pulled up on Morgan’s phone that was sitting on the windowsill. ‘Signs Your Parents are Getting Divorced’ was the name. He was the one who took the shaky breath this time, before speaking up, “FRI, can you, um, wake up and tell Pepper to come to Morgan’s room for me?”

“On it,” FRI was quick to say.

“Morgan, honey, can you tell me what freaked you out?”, Tony asks, despite having a pretty good idea. He had this concern a couple days ago that she would eventually wonder. 

It was quiet for a minute or two just before her voice spoke up frantic, desperate to grasp onto her reality, “I-I, um, Kara told me that, uh… that the way y-you and Mama were acting recently reminded her of, um… her parents before t-they split up. ...and then you, uh, you told me t-there was nothing to worry about the other day. But then I had this… dream that you two actually broke up a-and I—“

“What on Earth is going on?”, Pepper appears at the doorway, spotting her husband with tears brimming his eyes as he hugged onto their daughter… who she could only assume was crying also. 

“She, uh, had a nightmare and now thinks we’re, uh, separating,” Tony answers, blinking back the tears that were brimming. 

“Oh my God,” Pepper mumbles, sitting on the other side of the shaking teen. 

“You two were arguing, like really bad… a-and it ended with Dad leaving without saying anything, and then… then I woke up,” Morgan cries. “P-Please tell me that’s not going to happen, I… I don’t know what I’d do. Please.”

“Morgan, that’s not going to happen. I promise,” Pepper assures as she rubs her daughter’s back in hopes to comfort her, glancing at her husband who looked as if he’s seen a ghost. “It’s going to be okay, we’re fine. Great, even. I’m so sorry, honey. I really, really am.”

Tony’s blank expression went away almost as quickly as it came, the tears that he originally blinked away, silently fell down his cheeks now. This was his worst fear as a father... to think that his daughter could think that he’d ever leave or hurt her in any way. He strives so hard to not be like his own. The understanding that his fear had technically rang true, hurt… so much. 

His voice was shaky, “I’m going to say it again, but, uh… I would never leave you, Morgan. I’ll say it as… as often as you need to be reminded. And heaven forbid, that, uh, that something happens between Mom and I down the road… we’d try our best to make it work, believe me. Both of us would fight for our relationship… for our family before coming to a conclusion such as that. Neither of us would vanish from your life. I’m so sorry, Morgan.”

Pepper uses her free hand to wipe the tears from his face. 

“Thanks, Dad,” Morgan mumbles, sitting up. “But, uh… why did everything suddenly change? If, uh, if everything is really okay… why was it different?”

“You want the truth?”, Tony asks.

“That’s preferable, yes.”

“We thought you were uncomfortable with bringing your friends around here because you were embarrassed by us,” Pepper admits. 

“Oh, no doubt,” Morgan lets out a weak laugh. “But I’d rather deal with a tinge of embarrassment every time you two kiss or flirt with each other when my friends are over than not be embarrassed and think I’m going to have to travel between two different homes twice a week soon.” 

“I’m so sorry we scared you, Morgan,” Pepper apologizes, smiling sympathetically at the teary-eyed teenager. “If something bothers you and it’s possible that we can help ease the angst, please don’t hesitate to come to us.”

“Okay,” Morgan nods. “Um, I—“ Her stomach growls, cutting off her statement and previous thought trail.

“How long have you been awake and how long has it been since the last time you ate?”, Tony asks.

“An hour or two?”, she states. “And seven? I think?”

“Let's get you something to eat, alright?”, Pepper says as she stands up, holding out her hand for Morgan. 

After eating a late night (or early morning) snack, the family of three ( ~~against Pepper’s better judgement~~ ) watched a Disney movie together at five in the morning. Morgan fell asleep first, then Tony, and lastly Pepper. 

**A month later, March:**

“Earth to Morgan, you with me?”, Isabelle attempts to get her friend’s attention.

“Huh?”, Morgan turns toward her friend with a content smile painted on her face. 

“You weren’t paying attention?”, her friend stifles a laugh.

“N-No… I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized. “What were you saying?”

Isabelle quickly glances in the direction her friend had been gazing at, seeing Morgan’s parents slow dancing outside on their porch through the window. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed reading, please leave kudos, comments, and shares! Thank you so much for reading, it means so much... especially when y’all are reading my passion projects and vent fics. 
> 
> Please follow my tumblr (akasharpiegirl) and my Twitter (aoskayla) for fic updates and insanity. 
> 
> Stay safe out there. Love you all! <3


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